Lallu Sabha
27 02 2008
Not to be confused with “Lollu Sabha”(which I have never seen by the way. It’s just that all my classmates discuss it every lunch break. 
), this post is about Laloo Prasad Yadav’s stint at the Lok Sabha as Railway Minister.
I know a lot of people hate Laloo as a politician. Maybe even I dislike him. He epitomises everything that’s wrong with Indian politics. People even hold him responsible for the poor state of things and underdevelopment (what ? what development) in Bihar. Agreed, he didn’t do much good as the Chief Minister of Bihar.
But as Railway Minister, he has turned things around. Incidentally another Chief Minister (and also currently) of Bihar was earlier Railway Minister - Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar comes across as a honest politician and a decent man. However, under his tenure as RM, the Railways didn’t see much progress or profits.
What’s remarkable about Laloo is the way he has turned around the Railways after having failed miserably with his state. Maybe this goes to show that if you take the power away from a corrupt politicians and ask him only to make policies/decisions, without them playing a role in money matters, they actually might do good. (If you remember, power corrupts. So taking away power should work)
I happened to be watching the news yesterday and Laloo was on TV announcing the various new schemes under the Railway Budget. Some of them sounded good to me. I am no expert on budgets, but I can probably tell the difference between good reforms and the not so good ones. Among notable changes were, introduction of Smart Cards, free monthly season tickets for female students , new trains…etc. Now, one only hopes all the other Government departments will take cue and come up with meaningful reforms. Lets hope P.Chidambaram also has a few tricks up his sleeve.
Read more about Laloo here.
Read more about the current Railway Budget here.
You seem to think there’s no money involved in being the Railway Minister. What fantasy world do you live in? There’s more money than being CM of Bihar. So technically Lalu did better because he had more money.
@Marc,
There is a lot of money involved. But as a part of the cabinet, I think he would have less control over it. As to how much money there was when he was CM of Bihar, you should read about it.
Technically Lallu did better because he had more money over which he did not have much control.
Dear Sir,
You are greatest minister of indian Railway
@Satyajit,
Thank you thank you thank you. You are far too kind.